Elon University’s student-run strategic communications agency captured two student awards at the Triangle AdFed’s 2016 American Advertising Awards Gala. The event was held on Feb. 18 in downtown Durham.
The student-run strategic communications agency received a silver award for its work on B2B client Gregory Grier’s office solutions website design. Evan Gaskin ’16, a communication design major and a Live Oak creative content producer, led the web project.
Kathryn Buckingham ’16, a communication design major and the agency’s creative director, and Associate Professor Ben Hannam received a gold award for agency self-promotion logo design. Hannam serves as Live Oak’s creative adviser and works in collaboration with Hal Vincent, a lecturer in the School of Communications and the agency’s faculty director.
More than 200 advertising and design professionals attended the Feb. 18 event at the Cotton Room in Durham, recognizing excellence in the Triangle’s advertising industry. The competition’s awards are commonly known as the ADDYs, and Live Oak received its first-ever gold ADDY award at the 2015 gala.
A Triangle AdFed board member and education committee chair, Vincent presented awards to students and welcomed Robert F. Lauterborn, the James L. Knight Professor of Advertising at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to the stage to announce the 2016 AAF Lauterborn Scholarship and to confer the Student Best in Show award.
“In two years of entering our work in this competition, we have grown creatively and it’s exciting that these students receive the recognition for their creative and effective work we do for our real-world clients every semester,” said Vincent.
“It’s extremely important to provide students with a real-world, hands-on experience,” Hannam said. “Live Oak Communications is a means of letting students test their academic knowledge in a professional setting. It’s been rewarding for Hal and I to facilitate this type of environment.”
Gold awards move on to judging at the district level and then possibly the national level. The student competition was open to individuals from universities located from Raleigh to Winston-Salem.
The American Advertising Federation, the nation’s oldest national advertising trade association, and the only association representing all facets of the advertising industry, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and acts as the “Unifying Voice for Advertising.” Regionally, Triangle AdFed, a part of the AAF, works to promote the wellbeing of the Raleigh-area advertising industry, which also includes Apex, Cary, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham and Morrisville. To accomplish this mission, the organization offers unique programming and community involvement initiatives for the practitioners who work within those markets.
About Live Oak Communications
Live Oak Communications is Elon University’s student-run strategic communications agency, providing students unique experiences partnering with numerous businesses, nonprofits and organizations to achieve their business goals through targeted, multiplatform strategies and tactics. Live Oak’s capabilities include public relations, advertising, video, web design, social media solutions, graphic design, corporate identity and more.